Resident Work Hour Policy:
Preamble:
The faculty of the Department of Neurological Surgery believe strongly that the ACGME work hour guidelines are important for the residents’ education and well-being. Each resident is empowered to be responsible for his/her work hours each week and for each four week period. It is their responsibility to maintain an accurate account of the hours spent at the hospital and to modify their schedule, if necessary, to comply with these guidelines. No faculty member at any of the participating institutions may cause them to work beyond these hours. In addition, it is mandatory that if a resident or faculty member feels that a resident is fatigued, that resident must go home immediately and stay at home for a period of time necessary to remedy that fatigue. It is also expected that residents will spend their time on duties which enhance their education.
Vanderbilt/Children’s Hospital/VA Rotations:
Residents on these clinical rotations are expected to be in-house and work from 6am-6pm Monday to Friday. In addition, the residents take call from home in pairs where one resident is junior to the other. Residents who have to come in and are in-house for 6 hours or more on a given on-call night must go home by 7:30am and are not to return until the following morning at 6am. The goal is to maximize patient care and resident education while minimizing the chances of a resident having to stay home the next day because they have worked in-house more than 6 hours at night. Call is shared equally and averages between every 5th or 6th day. This policy ensures residents will work no more than 80 hours per week, averaged over four weeks, and each resident receives at least 24 continuous hours off per week averaged over four weeks.
Monitoring:
Residents are responsible for monitoring and documenting their own hours each four-week period so as to be in compliance with the work hours policy. They are also responsible along with the faculty for monitoring their fatigue and going home to remedy such fatigue, if it occurs, regardless of the number of hours worked. Each resident electronically submits the actual in-house hours worked over the past 4 weeks through the GME website. By entering his/her hours on the website, the resident is also attesting to the accuracy of the data. These resident logs are reviewed each four weeks by the Departmental Administrative Officer (or designee) and the Program Director or his Associate.
Moonlighting:
Moonlighting is not allowed by Neurosurgical residents in Vanderbilt’s Department of Neurological Surgery. In very special cases, when a resident is not on the clinical service, exceptions may be made by the Chairman.
